Jul 26, 2021 Andy Lane The Port of Belize Limited is slowly bouncing back after taking a major hit to its bottom line in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sugar exports were down and cruise ships stopped coming to Belize. This led the Port of Belize to terminate a significant portion of its staff in order to keep the company afloat. Chief Executive Officer at the Port of Belize, Andy Lane was a guest on Channel Five’s Open Your Eyes this morning.
Andy Lane, C.E.O., Port of Belize Limited “With the decrease in tourist, and the lockdowns, slowdowns in the economy then in 2020 we lost one fifth of our container volumes. At the same time, our sugar exports declined by fifty percent. And then, suddenly the cruise ships stopped in totally. So that was a ninety, I think statistically, a nine four or ninety seven percent loss that we had in 2020. 2021, we have seen a little bit of recovery. But, my volume and therefore my revenue was still thirteen percent below 2019. We have one cruise ship a week, instead of two or three per day. And my sugar is very low; it is still fifty percent of 2019. So, we have had a pretty huge hit to our revenue stream. And, that has caused a major problem to our bottom line, and we need to manage that the best we possibly can.”